Addicted

Hello, my name is Cheetah Girl and I am officially a running addict.

Last week I finally got my NEW RUNNING SHOES!!!! a;lkdfjslkj;asfoieuroewirunmvcnfdherif!!!!!! (that's how excited I was, fyi) Seriously, is there anything in the world more exciting than new running shoe day? I didn't think so. You can ask everyone in my house, I resembled a blonde Tigger bouncing around the house for the rest of the day and refused to take them off until bed. They are Mizuno Wave Inspire 5's! :)

Today I ran an interesting 12 miler to break the new shoes in. Interesting because I have never run in fog before. Thick fog. Scary Halloween-y/grey/humid/nasty/IHATEYOU fog. Of course I was safe, running a straight 3 mile course on the side of the road with continuous sidewalk, but it was just weird. I don't think I liked it. And that's weird. It's weird that running in clouds bothered me so much I'm writing a blog post about it. Even though it blocked the sun, it was super humid and even the air I breathed felt thick. Like the way a milkshake feels to your mouth when you can't get it through the straw. Except not in a good way. Okay bad analogy. But still. WEIRD!

So anyway, you are probably wondering why I have suddenly had the revelation of christening myself as a running addict. Or not, but I'm going to tell you anyway. I didn't run for two whole days, and was absolutely miserable. (horrific, right?) Day 1 was just for recovery since I had run pretty good 5 days in a row, but Day 2 was out of my control; we had a surprise trip to Nashvegas...I got woken up at 4 in the all-that-is-holy A.M. My first reaction to supposedly exciting news was, "....can I run first?" The answer was NO, and so changed the entire mood of the trip. My legs had already been whining to run on Day Off 1, but Day 2 was terrible. I was seriously depressed. I tried not to be, honest(!), but I just felt like a huge blob. I was short with everyone, didn't feel like shopping (gasp!), and didn't have an appetite. And let me tell you, not only do I eat ALOT, I eat ALL THE TIME. Normally I am the bouncy, fun, outgoing one of the family, but with that gone plus the not being hungry part caused some eyebrows to be raised. SO, I ran the next day and my mood did a complete 180. Amazing! I'm in such a better mood when I get my run in. Call it endorphins, call it a feeling of accomplishment, call it a crystal meth (kidding), but I want it. Need it. I crave the feeling. My favorite part during a run is after the first 3 or 4, that's when I get my first runner's high and I actually smile and am able to pick up the pace. I'm smiling just writing about it! :)

Okay all done.
Run on cheetahs!!!!

First 5K and New Favorite Store

First 5K result..... 24:06! I'm totally okay and thrilled with it due to the lack of training and Bruster's Bulge. :) I knew it wouldn't be o-m-g worthy, so as to not let myself down like I did the recent 10K, I set the goal in my head to be 25 minutes. 24 < 25 = happy CheetahGirl! The humidity was terrible. At the end of the race I seriously looked like I had just gotten out of the pool, except the wetness was not bathing suit worthy! (ewwww) All in all, it was fun! I would love to train more for this distance and be able to kill some time. I was extremely upset when I found out a 10 year old and a 13 year old had beaten me. Really?? LAME. So yes, I am now determined to smoke them...next year.

I've only run in 4 total races, and it's pretty cool to see how much better I've gotten:
Dollars for Scholars 10K 2008- 1:00:19 (65/111) top 59%
Mercedes 1/2 Marathon 2009- 1:55:48 (821/2954) top 28%
Dollars for Scholars 10K 2009- 55:02 (60/311) top 19%
Cotton Row Run 5K 2009- 24:06 (136/1677) top 8%

So I'm gradually creeping up...haha. (does that make me a 'creeper'?!?)

Before the race, I had a magnificant discovery that will forever change my running....FLEET FEET! I fell in love as soon as I walked in. Runner's paradise! I learned so many things within the short hour I was able to stay.

Lesson of the Day: There are different kinds of running shoes. You think I would know this by now...nope! I have had two pairs of actual running shoes, some Asics which I got because they were cheap at the store, and the Mizunos I'm currently pounding because...they were pretty. I had never been videotaped to figure out my protonation or advised about which shoes to buy until last Sunday. Apparently I overprotonate, and the shoes I've been wearing are neutrals. I ran on the treadmill (which was kind of awkward in jeans and a not so loose-fitting shirt infront of customers who STARE), and discovered I also run in a straight line. So straight that the guy had to watch it a total of 3 times, because my foot kept covering up what he was trying to look for in the other foot. He told me he had 'seen nothing like it before' and showed interest in youtubing it. I hope he was kidding..(!)
Lesson Learned: Not all shoes are made equal.

I was also lectured on the importance of special socks. It seems as obvious as the newly acquired shoe knowledge, but is something I've never actually thought about. Two pairs of amazingly cushioned walking-on-cloud-socks for $20? Check.
On the back wall of the store was Nike Tempo Track Shorts HEAVEN. They are my absolute favorite and this place had one in every color imaginable. CheetahGirl's next 5 paychecks spent? Check.
The last coolest thing I saw were all the GU's and powerbars I have read about from other runner's blogs but never seen in real life (haha), so it was really neat to finally see and know what they were. Saved money due to ability to hold back no $ left from shorts and socks? Check.

Okay, that's all! I plan to incorporate speed workouts/intervals to try and improve my speed... any suggestions?? What training do you do to help you become more cheetah-like??? :)

The Bruster's Bulge

I'm a bad runner. It hit me today in a thunderbolt-like slap from the running gods that I have been abusing my body... and I'm going to pay. Everyone know that running causes one to be hungry, all the time. Unfortunately, I have taken full advantage of thinking I can eat whatever I want to, because hey! I'm a runner, I'll just run it off. No biggie. WRONGO! So, today I ran extremely slug-like and laughed to myself as those nice endorphins kicked in, 'Ha, you probably shouldn't have had that ice cream sundae from Bruster's last night! .... or 1/2 of that box of cheez-its! .... or frozen pizza for dinner!' That's when the thunderbolt hit. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat. You mean I can't eat whatever I want? NO. Since I've come home for the summer, I've been fueling my body primarily with what I had been missing out on all year from the lovely college diet using the rationale of: 'oh, I NEVER get this! It's okay to have it.' Too bad that exception involves over half the pantry/fridge/freezer. I've also acquired a little bulge around the love handle region I'd like to call "The Bruster's Bulge". Let's just say I've had about every flavor on the menu since my homecoming. ;-)

SO, CheetahGirl needs to practice better eating habits. In order to perform better and faster and endure longer, I need to properly fuel my body. I'm running my first ever 5K bright and early Monday morning, but not expecting the time to have rainbows and cotton candy blowing out its back end. No.. most likely it will involve gackle of teenage first timers flying by with their fingers up their noses. Karma is a *****.

Anywho, more on running. I knocked out a reasonably good 7 miler yesterday, despite the awful awful humidity. I need to get up earlier. I set my alarm for 6 every morning, but haven't actually gotten out of bed this summer before 7. By the time I fiddle-fart around, eat, potty, and lace up the shoes, it's 9-10ish and feels like a sauna outside. I love the South.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend, and Happy Running, Cheetahs!

Nobody Said It Was Easy

Getting back into the routine of things is always easier said than done. Hmph.

8-mile run yesterday... Felt sooo good! I was lucky too, the humidity only reached 77% as I headed out. It has been raining nastily non-stop here, absolutely miserable! But since there was only a 20% chance, I decided to head out. We have a Greenway trail about a mile from my house that is a 4-miler there and back run. There is a gargantuem mountain of a hill at the very entrance of said Greenway. When my family used to ride bikes over there when I was little, my dad would always bet me a Dairy Queen Blizzard I couldn't make it up the hill without stopping to walk the bike up. I always got one anyways... mainly because he would want one. I blame my good ole dad for my competitiveness. You know how most dad's let their kids win board games and such? Not mine! He never let me win.. which is why Monopoly is one of my all time favorite games. It was and still is one of the only games I can beat him in! :-) Anyways, After completing the Greenway and walking up monster-hill, I became incredibly irritated with my ipod. None of my music seemed to fit my mood and I was changing the song every 8 seconds. So I turned it off. *gasp* I've never run without music before... weird huh? (actually I ran without it for the 1/2 marathon, but that's besides the point) It was surprisingly extremely peaceful. The sun was bright but not scorching hot yet, the wind was ever so softly rustling the leaves, and the smell of freshly cut grass was all in the air. I had a very relaxing and enjoyable 3 mile dilly-dally run home uninterrupted by music. I know what you're wondering...was I one of those people who leave their ipods in but aren't actually listening to anything? You bet I was. ;-)

Happy running!

Back at it!

SO. Today was the first official day I motivated myself to pound out an 8-miler since my 1/2 marathon....and before you think 'Oh! That's great CheetahGirl!' let me remind you that the said 1/2.. was in February. 'Bad CheetahGirl!' I was even more surprised (and slightly proud) that I finished at a steady 8 minute per mile pace, considering I took Friday and Saturday off due to a frenzy of studying for finals...ugh. It'll all be over on Tuesday. YAY!

Let's talk endorphins. I love endorphins. LOVE ENDORPHINS. They always seem to come at the most random times during a run... today was around mile 4, which let me know I could do 4 more, but the weird one was at mile 7.5. I had started to feel fatigued and had to talk to myself to go another 1/2 mile, when all of a sudden I felt great. My knees no longer ached, and there was no struggle to breathe deeply. I like to call this when I stabilize. It's probably my favorite feeling. I get this rush that says 'pshh! you've run __ miles. You are awesome. 864712 more miles? Piece of cake! Watch this!' I actually involutarily smile when this occurs, which causes non-runners to give me the 'I think something is seriously wrong with that girl' look. So, taking advantage of these amazing hormones, I picked up the pace and finsihed the last 1/2 mile strong. Could I have run more? The answer is always yes, but because it was the farthest I've gone in so long I decided to play it safe.

All in all, a good day. Bring on the week! ;-) Happy running!

Dollars for Scholars 10K

So, the annual Dollars for Scholars 10K run was last Friday.. at 6:00 and 85 degree heat! I had high expectations, I knew I'd be making around 45ish minutes because that's what I'd been training for, and was ready to blow my time from last year (1:00:12) out of the water... unfortunately I forgot about the heat. I ended up walking. Twice. The course was a double loop, once for the 5K-ers and two for the 10K-ers. I had to walk at about 4.5 miles, and then again at 5. I was NOT happy. I didn't walk for long, just enough to catch my breath and not hyperventilate.. I almost passed out once before one summer because I got too hot... that was really scary. I had no phone on me and was about 5 miles away from home.. I never want to feel like that again. My time ended up being right at 55 minutes... at least I beat my last time I guess. Stupid heat!!!! My 1/2 marathon pace was faster than that! Grrrr.....

I dominated yesterday. That's right, domination occurred. ;-) 1. My huge organic chem. II test was a breeze thankyousweetbabyjesus, and I actually left the building smiling. I know, whoa! Hopefully I won't jinx myself! 2. I ran after taking two days off to study for said test, 4 miles in 31:20! Yeeeaayuhh! I felt so good I ate three delicious peanut butter cookies along with dinner.... so all that work for nothin'-ha! But, I still felt like a champ. Mission accomplished. I still need to get back in my running groove.
So many things to do. I love life. Life is good. Always. :)

On the side, I recently was driving around when the new Miley Cyrus song came on the radio, The Climb. Now I'm no fan of Miley whatsoever, I sort of think shes a spoiled brat that has had to grow up way too fast, and I think she sounds like a man. I know her song has been out for a while now, but I've refused to listen to it and change the station when it comes on, the other however I actually listened to it, and I really like it. Gasp. The words could be applicable to a lot of situations, and that night I really really needed to hear those lyrics. So thank you, Miley, for not letting me give up hope. (I still think you're a spoiled brat)

I'll end with a quote that I have up in my room:
"There are two types of people in the world:
1. Those who run.
2. Those who should."